Well, that's it. Today is the closing day for the Summer of Sport entries. The Summer of Sport is over and, as if on cue, the weather has changed. It feels as though its been a month of endless sunshine. Today, finally, some long awaited rain :-D

Have spent the day reviewing videos, picking the best ones, uploading to YouTube and submitting for the competitions. Managed a different Horse Agility course every weekend and the month has flown by! It has been exhausting, but fabulous :-D

I've been busy practicing and filming July's Medium Level course. Fat pony's on a fairly strict diet at the moment, he's only allowed out for 1-2 hours grass every day, the rest of the time he's on bare earth with regular but very meagre rations of mixed hay and straw. Vet's daily allowance! As I don't have an arena, the Horse Agility course is on grass. Just to make the course that little bit more challenging....!

On the plus side, some of the training's gone really well. He now accepts having a scarf passed over his nose and put around his neck so comfortably that I can hold it up and he puts his nose into it by himself. This is a major achievement for a pony who used to be extremely head shy. I've done some work with him previously and he's much better than he used to be, but the scarf obstacle made me put some more time into it and he's really improved again.

But his attention has been drifting during the courses and that's almost certainly due to the time of year and his restrictions on time at grass. So it may seem to be a strange thing to do but yesterday after 2-3 rather average rounds of the course without any noticeable improvement, I decided to try him out at Liberty. It was a calculated risk. Would he take his chance and run off for more grass? In fact, it turned out rather the way that I hoped it might. He ended up being alot more attentive and more focussed than he had been on the lead line. It still didn't go quite as planned, but this time for all the right reasons. His play drive came out and he started to offer me his own interpretations on the obstacles, including following me perfectly - but backwards...... I laughed so much....... And sometimes, that's just exactly what it's all about :-D

Phew, so that's the Equagility course filmed! Some of the ridden parts a bit rough around the edges, but the ponies are still green under saddle so that was to be expected. We had alot of fun doing it and that was the main thing :-D

July is marching by, so time to move on to another course. We are within sight of promotion from Medium level up to Advanced level, so I need to enter this month's levels course (not just all the fun Summer of Sport courses, lol). There are a couple of challenges for us in this month's Medium Level course, things we haven't done before which are going to require some practice to get right.

Trotting through the U bend is going to be challenging. The U bend is made of jump poles arranged to create a U shaped corridor that is just 1m wide. The pony is going to have to trot all the way through without touching the poles or stepping outside the corridor. At the lower levels this is done at a walk, but for the medium level it gets harder! The pony trots with alot of energy and enthusiasm, he tends to get a little bit excited as well, he then also gets a little bit less attentive, so this will definitely be tricky.

The "stand and wait" obstacle is also harder at medium level. This month the pony has to be "parked" and then the handler has to trot onto the tarpaulin, before inviting the pony to join her (on the tarp) at a walk. We do have a reasonable stand and wait, which works well when I face the pony and back away from him, using body language to communicate "wait". We also have a good re-call, if I drop my shoulder and turn half away he knows that's his cue to re-join me. However, he has been taught that when I have my back to him and I move away that is his cue to follow me (with his nose at my shoulder). We don't have a verbal "wait" command in place. If I trot away from him, he will think that he is supposed to follow me! So we need to move this up to the next level of training as well.

Passing a garland, scarf or sash over the pony's nose and placing it around his neck will need some work as well. I'm fairly sure that the pony received some rough handling in his early life, as he was VERY headshy when I got him and although he's improved alot with considerate handling, he still has a very strong reaction to hands approaching his face and particularly his ears high up and directly from the front. Time spent building up the pony's confidence with this obstacle will be time very well spent this month. It will be another step towards helping the pony to recover from whatever experiences it was that have made him so fearful around his head and neck.

Sometimes these Horse Agility courses look easy - until you start practicing! There are almost always some interesting challenges thrown in and with the Summer of Sport Equagility course that I've been playing with it's the 5 step back up! Sounds easy? Well, maybe your horse doesn't back up, but let's say he does and let's say that you have enough control over his feet that you can get an exact number of steps: 1-2-3-4-5. Easy, right? At least, that's what I thought. As long as I go slow enough to to stop him simply rushing backwards out of control. As long as I go slow enough to get one foot stepping back at a time. It should be easy.

Turns out that the pony prefers to stand still with his front feet together (yes blindingly obvious to me now :-) So a 4 step back-up - no problem. A 6 step back-up, no problem! But a 5 step back-up..... Well, I challenge you. Go on. Give it a go :-)

With so many fun courses available for this month's fabulous "Summer of Sport" and only enough time and equipment to do one course at a time, it's decision time! I decided to have a go at the Equagility first. It doesn't come up very often, so when it does its a rare treat. There are also only 5 obstacles to set up, so an easy course to build!

In this particular Equagility course, the obstacles are: 1. a tarpaulin to cross; 2. five cones to weave through; 3. a scary corner (a corridor made up of "spooky" objects); 4. an L bend (poles forming a 1m wide L shaped corridor) and 5. a 5 second halt followed by a 5 step back up. The obstacles are to be completed first on line (or at liberty) and then ridden using only the same equipment! A bareback pad is allowed, but strictly no saddles! For liberty, only a neck string is allowed.

For me, the fun is in getting to ride my ponies bareback in just a headcollar. Fond memories of a mis-spent youth perhaps. Although I am far more confident riding my ponies bareback now than I ever was as a teenager! Since starting an exploration of "natural horsemanship" methods, I feel far better equipped to ensure that the experience is a calm and a safe one. Oh, and having a nice round comfortable cob to sit on helps too :-D

It's a tradition now for July to be "Summer of Sport" month at the International Horse Agility Club. There are still the usual competitive league courses, these being an On Line class for each of the 5 Levels: Starter to Advanced 1 star; plus a Liberty class for 3 levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. But, for July only, there are lots of fun and exciting "have a go" Summer of Sport classes added as well.

The Summer of Sport was first inspired by the London 2012 Olympic Games and proved so popular that it has become an exciting fixture in the Horse Agility calendar ever since.

For 2014, the Summer of Sport "have a go" classes are:

Long Reining

Pairs

Showjumping (online or liberty)

Juniors (handler to be 16 years or under), sponsored by Think Like a Pony, with rosettes and prizes for every entry

"World Equestrian Games" (obstacles inspired by the WEG taking place this year)

The International Horse Agility Club runs monthly competitions, which are entered by building your own course at home and having someone film you completing the course. You are given the exact course design that you need to build, you submit your video and then you get judged against a score sheet, a bit like dressage scoring.

There are 10 obstacles in a course and each obstacle has a maximum of 10 points. These points are awarded as maximum 5 points for correct technical completion of the obstacle and maximum 5 points for good horsemanship. Good horsemanship is judged on relationship and communication between horse and handler, which can be evidenced by the handler leading the horse with a "smile" in the line, the horse having a positive expression and whether the handler needs to make corrections to how the horse is completing the obstacle.

These competitions are split into on line competitions (using a lead rein that is at least 10 feet long) and liberty competitions. There are levels within the league, from Starter level through to Advanced 1* level, allowing you and your pony to compete against partnerships of a similar experience to yourself and to progress from relatively simple courses to very challenging ones!

There are also some real time competitions available, depending on how active the Horse Agility community is in your area. These competitions may be organised by a Horse Agility Accredited Trainer (HAAT) or by a local group of Horse Agility members, but for the results to be recognised in the international league the real time competition must be judged by a registered HAAT.

About me

I started Horse Agility as a way of making groundwork more fun. It was something I could do with my semi-retired old boy and his small, cheeky, pony companion. What amazed me was how much it improved the ponies' general confidence in the process. I compete at Advanced 1 star level on line and at liberty.